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3/09/2012

Sonic 3D Blast, the last Hedgehog adventure to ever be published for the SEGA Genesis. Now that plotline sounds pretty familiar, as it had already been Robotnik's plan in all the previous Sonic games to somehow take innocent forest creatures and bend them to his will. But story is about the only thing Sonic 3D Blast has in common with its predecessors, as its gameplay, graphical style and overall feel are completely removed from his original side-scrolling quests.

This one's isometric. Also known as the three-quarters perspective, it's a style of visual presentation used in some older games to offer depth on a diagonal – a rotated take on what might have been a birds-eye view. And while the title bills the view as "3D," any gamer who's played an isometric game in the past knows that it's hardly a substitute for actual, genuine three-dimensional graphics. Because, for one, it's hard to control.

In a game world built on the slant, the most often-used directions of movement will be northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast – the 45 degree angles. And the old Genesis D-Pad wasn't made with that in mind, meaning getting Sonic moving in the direction you wanted him to go was uncomfortable at best. Pressing two edges at once, trying to input the implied direction in the middle. It could be a hassle.